Michael Riedel: Poster - Painting - Presentation

Text by Tina Kukielski.

German artist Michael Riedel is as comfortable in the world of print and analog information as he is in the digital realm of websites and HTML code. Michael Riedel: Poster--Painting--Presentation is the first publication to carefully examine the practice for which the artist is best known: the systematic creation of paintings from posters generated with text found online. Riedel copies HTML code from websites that mention his work into one of his 34 poster templates, which he then arranges in different colors and orientations to make his paintings.With a new essay by Tina Kukielski, Michael Riedel: Poster--Painting--Presentation lays out for the first time the intricate process behind the artistís ongoing series of paintings. The book, like the essay, is divided into three sections: one dedicated to Riedelís posters, one to his Poster Paintings and one to his recent PowerPoint Paintings.

Since the late 1990s, Michael Riedel has advanced his own model of a self-sustaining artistic production, continuously using reproductions as a means to “reintroduce the system of art into the art system.” His practice has incorporated a wide range of media and included large-scale works on canvas, fabric works, film and video, audio recordings, installations, and events. A central focus is the production and design of books, catalogues, brochures, posters, and invitation cards; these works often accompany and document his exhibitions.

Tina Kukielski is Executive Director of ART21, a nonprofit art organization specializing in digital media about contemporary art, and a curator and writer based in New York. She has previously held curatorial positions at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Carnegie Museum of Art, and has independently curated art projects in Milan, Dubai, Miami and New York. She was a co-curator of the acclaimed 2013 Carnegie International. She was a contributor to the recently published anthology poised to become a key resource on digital art, Mass Effect: Art and the Internet in the Twenty-First Century. In 2014, she spearheaded the digital recovery of original Andy Warhol artworks made on the Amiga computer in partnership with Cory Arcangel, and co-produced a documentary film on the subject. In 2015, she curated the group exhibition All Watched Over at James Cohan Gallery, which included the work of Michael Riedel.

German artist Michael Riedel is as comfortable in the world of print and analog information as he is in the digital realm of websites and HTML code. Michael Riedel: Poster--Painting--Presentation is the first publication to carefully examine the practice for which the artist is best known: the systematic creation of paintings from posters generated with text found online. Riedel copies HTML code from websites that mention his work into one of his 34 poster templates, which he then arranges in different colors and orientations to make his paintings.

With a new essay by Tina Kukielski, Michael Riedel: Poster--Painting--Presentation lays out for the first time the intricate process behind the artistís ongoing series of paintings. The book, like the essay, is divided into three sections: one dedicated to Riedelís posters, one to his Poster Paintings and one to his recent PowerPoint Paintings.

Since the late 1990s, Michael Riedel has advanced his own model of a self-sustaining artistic production, continuously using reproductions as a means to “reintroduce the system of art into the art system.” His practice has incorporated a wide range of media and included large-scale works on canvas, fabric works, film and video, audio recordings, installations, and events. A central focus is the production and design of books, catalogues, brochures, posters, and invitation cards; these works often accompany and document his exhibitions.

Tina Kukielski is Executive Director of ART21, a nonprofit art organization specializing in digital media about contemporary art, and a curator and writer based in New York. She has previously held curatorial positions at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Carnegie Museum of Art, and has independently curated art projects in Milan, Dubai, Miami and New York. She was a co-curator of the acclaimed 2013 Carnegie International. She was a contributor to the recently published anthology poised to become a key resource on digital art, Mass Effect: Art and the Internet in the Twenty-First Century. In 2014, she spearheaded the digital recovery of original Andy Warhol artworks made on the Amiga computer in partnership with Cory Arcangel, and co-produced a documentary film on the subject. In 2015, she curated the group exhibition All Watched Over at James Cohan Gallery, which included the work of Michael Riedel.